Marcia Donahue's magical art garden in Berkeley

In Berkeley, Marcia Donahue is (almost) a household name. She’s well-known for her ceramic sculptures, but even better known for her Berkeley garden, which combines art and plants in a way that is pure magic.

I first visited Marcia’s garden in 2016 during one of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days, but it took nine years before I had a chance to see it again. And it would have been even longer if it hadn’t been for Loree danger garden Bohl. Loree set an entire machinery in motion when she came down from Portland in March. Our joint friends Max and Justin organized several garden visits for us, including their own Oakland garden, Ann Nichols’ bromeliad-heavy garden in Piedmont and, well, Marcia’s garden.

Marcia Donahue photographed by Loree Bohl

Marcia has been the subject of many articles over the years. A quick Google search yields about 1,000 results, so if you want to do a deep-dive, knock yourself out. Here’s the short version: Marcia has lived in the same house in Berkeley for 47 years and she’s gardened there just as long. Keep this in mind when you look at the photos in this post: a garden this established doesn’t happen in a year or two — it takes decades.

The lot isn’t particularly large, about 60 by 100 feet, but it seems twice as big. Because there’s so much to see, it took me 10 minutes to walk 100 feet. Often I couldn’t even see that far ahead because the plantings are so dense. And many plants are tall — the perfect opportunity to display art vertically as well. Marcia describes her art as “Planting Sculpture, Sculpting Plants,” and her garden is the perfect stage.

Berkeley isn’t particularly cold in the winter, but it isn’t particularly warm in the summer either. Marcia has picked the perfect palette: plants from subtropical areas, impossibly green and lush to my eyes, complemented by tropical bromeliads planted in pots or tucked into the shrubs and trees. Other than some epiphytic cacti like rhipsalis and a row of columnar cacti which might be on the neighbor’s property there aren’t a lot of succulents. I didn’t see any agaves.

I already mentioned the art, but unless you see it for yourself, it’s hard to appreciate just how many pieces there are. Most were made by Marcia, but other artists are represented, too. The most prominent is a 10-foot sculpture called “The Big Beauty.” It was made by Marcia’s daughter, Sara Tool, and stands on the north side of the house. That is where we begin our tour.

The Big Beauty by Sara Tool

Complemented by giant horsetail

It sounds crazy, but I’d love to have something like this in our garden

The only larger succulent I saw: an amazingly tall fan aloe (Kumara plicatilis) that is so etiolated I barely recognized it as such. It grows in a lot of shade and the leaves are reaching towards the sky.

Sitting area in the side garden on the north side of the house

Ceramic bamboo poles...

...with pagoda-style tops

Art is everywhere

Many of the plants, like this tree fern, are living sculptures of their own

Crazy cool begonias, a plant that would be impossible to keep alive for long in my climate

Before we explore the back garden, let’s go back to the sidewalk in front of Marcia’s house, an 1880s Victorian. This is what people see as they walk by:

The chains of clay balls in the eucalyptus tree were inspired by malas, prayer beads used in Hindu and Buddhist spiritual practices.

The effect is breathtaking.

I focused so much on the art on display, but the plants were pretty special, too.

Giant calla lilies (Zantedeschia sp.)

Variegated Clivia miniata

Black tree fern (Sphaeropteris medullaris)

Cordyline adding a burst of color

But it didn’t take long before my eyes wandered back to the art.

Marcia has a sense of humor!

In the far corner, the chicken coop was in the process of becoming a vegetable garden. It wasn’t quite finished yet, but it was immediately apparent that this won’t be an ordinary vegetable patch. The centerpiece is a rusted metal scaffolding repurposed from who knows where.

A row of handmade stepping stones leads to the fence. (This post by Loree has a lot more photos of this area.)

Next to the vegetable garden is a display of potted bromeliads and epiphytic cacti (on the other side of the fence is the row of columnar cacti I mentioned earlier).

Hohenbergia edmundoi from Brazil

Of course there’s art, too. I love these toothy fish!

The koi pond designed by Cevan Forristt is shaped like a hand, but that’s hard to see at ground level. As expected, it’s lined with art.

The breadth of Marcia’s work is astounding — and often highly realistic. At first glance, you’d think these are real pieces of wood with real shelf fungi.

Here the wood is real (maybe?), the mushrooms aren’t

I don’t know where the pieces in the next three photos came from, but there has to be a story — especially about the grave marker:

More art, photographed as we made our way towards the house:

Calla lily

I found these pieces particularly captivating

The faces are mesmerizing

Faces of a different kind

Almost at the house

Cannamois grandis, to me the most beautiful of all restios. If only I could grow it...

Nothing ordinary...

...here

The last plant I want to show you stopped me dead in my tracks. I could tell it was an orchid of some kind, but I had no idea which one. I’m completely ignorant when it comes to orchids — I can only tell them apart by color: white, yellow, purple. Fortunately, there was a professional horticulturist among us: Max told me it’s Cypripedium formosanum, an orchid endemic to Taiwan. For sure one of the most extraordinary orchids I’ve ever seen.

Formosan lady’s slipper (Cypripedium formosanum), as the species name suggests, is an orchid endemic to Taiwan (Formosa was the Portuguese name for Taiwan)

And this is where our visit ended.

Looking at my photos, I still can’t quite believe that a garden like this exists and that I had the privilege of seeing it. You can, too: Marcia opens her garden to the public most Sundays from 1 to 5 pm. (3017 Wheeler St., Berkeley, CA).

Loree recently featured Marcia’s garden in a three-part series on her blog, danger garden (here, here, and here). Check it out — Loree captured many vignettes I missed. She has a way of noticing things that others don’t, myself included.

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.